WrestleMania 35
WrestleMania XXXV was the 35th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE, it took place on April 8, 2019 at the Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey after WrestleMania IV and V, both of which were held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and WrestleMania XXIX, which was also held in MetLife Stadium. The event included the first-ever all-women's main event in WrestleMania history. Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch faced each other in a winner takes all triple threat match for both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. Production Background WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event, ranked the sixth most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes and having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. The event will be the first WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey since 2013 (at the same venue). This is the fourth WrestleMania to be held in the state of New Jersey (IV, V, 29), and the sixth in the New York metropolitan area (I, 2, X, XX, 29). The two official theme songs for the event are "Work" (by Chris Classic) and "Love Runs Out" (by OneRepublic). On November 5, 2018, traveling packages for the event were sold; tickets went on sale on November 16, 2018, with individual tickets costing from $35 to $2,500. On the March 11 episode of Raw, current wrestler Alexa Bliss was revealed as the host of WrestleMania 35. On the following episode, Elias announced that he would have a musical performance at the event. Celebrity involvement As is WrestleMania tradition, multiple celebrities will take part in the event. On the March 4 episode of Raw, Colin Jost and Michael Che of Saturday Night Live (SNL) were introduced as special correspondents for the event, and were later entered into the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Joan Jett will perform her song "Bad Reputation" live for Ronda Rousey's ring entrance. Gospel music star and syndicated radio host Yolanda Adams will perform "America the Beautiful" to kick off the main card of WrestleMania. Storylines The card will consist of sixteen matches, including three on the pre-show. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, in which wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, with storylines produced on their weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live. Main event match At SummerSlam, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were involved in a triple threat match for the SmackDown Women's Championship, which Flair won. After the match, Lynch attacked Flair, ending their friendship. Lynch defeated Flair for the championship at Hell in a Cell and they continued to feud over the title for the next few months. At Survivor Series, Lynch was originally scheduled to face Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey in a champion versus champion match, but was replaced by Flair due to a legit injury; during the match, Flair brutally attacked Rousey with weapons. At TLC: Tables, Ladders, & Chairs, Rousey interfered in the namesake championship match between Lynch, Flair, and Asuka, costing both Lynch and Flair the match. Lynch was unsuccessful in regaining the title at the Royal Rumble, but won the women's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Flair, despite injuring her own knee, and chose to face Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 35. Lynch then refused a medical examination on her knee after a brawl with Flair on SmackDown, resulting in Stephanie McMahon suspending Lynch until she was examined. By the following week, Lynch had been medically cleared and her suspension was lifted, but Vince McMahon overruled the decision, suspended Lynch for 60 days, and replaced her with Flair at WrestleMania. Over the next couple of weeks, Lynch continued to violate her suspension and attacked Rousey and Flair both physically and on Twitter. Following pleas by Rousey to reinstate Lynch, the suspension was lifted. At Fastlane, a limping Lynch defeated Flair by disqualification when Rousey attacked Lynch. As a result, Lynch was added back into the championship match at WrestleMania to make it a triple threat match, which was confirmed to be the first-ever women's match to main event WrestleMania. Flair then defeated Asuka to win the SmackDown Women's Championship on the March 26 episode of SmackDown. In response, Stephanie made the WrestleMania match "winner takes all" with both titles on the line. World Championship matches At the Royal Rumble, Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match, thus earning a world championship match of his choice at WrestleMania 35. The next night on Raw, Rollins was given until the end of the night to choose his opponent. Later, after Universal Champion Brock Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman tried to discourage Rollins from challenging Lesnar, Rollins confronted Lesnar, resulting in a brawl. Afterwards, Rollins chose to face Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. On the March 11 episode of Raw, Heyman reminded Rollins of his previous encounters with Lesnar and Rollins was attacked by Shelton Benjamin, Lesnar's old wrestling friend from the University of Minnesota and tag team partner in Ohio Valley Wrestling; Benjamin performed several German suplexes on Rollins, just as Lesnar would do, but Rollins nonetheless defeated Benjamin in a match. Rollins and Lesnar had one final confrontation on the April 1 episode of Raw, which resulted in Rollins delivering two low blows to Lesnar and The Stomp. On the February 12 episode of SmackDown, Kofi Kingston was a last-minute replacement for an injured Mustafa Ali in a gauntlet match to determine who would enter last in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber; Kingston pinned WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in the first match. At Elimination Chamber, Bryan retained the title in the titular match, lastly eliminating Kingston. On the following episode of SmackDown, Kingston was granted a WWE Championship match at Fastlane after pinning Bryan in a six-man tag team match. The following week, however, Vince McMahon replaced Kingston with a returning and "more deserving" Kevin Owens. At Fastlane, The New Day (Big E, Kingston, and Xavier Woods) confronted Mr. McMahon, who scheduled a triple threat match for the title, however, Kingston was instead put in a handicap match against The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) and lost, while Bryan retained the title in his respective match. On the following episode of SmackDown, The New Day again confronted Mr. McMahon, who said that Kingston would have to win a gauntlet match to receive a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 35. The following week, Kingston won the gauntlet match, but Mr. McMahon then forced him to also wrestle the WWE Champion, who defeated Kingston. On the March 26 episode, The New Day teased leaving WWE and once again confronted Mr. McMahon, who decided that if Big E and Woods won a tag team gauntlet match, Kingston would in fact receive the championship match. Big E and Woods won after scoring a count out victory over their final opponents, Bryan and Rowan, thus securing Kingston's WWE Championship match against Bryan at WrestleMania, and they signed the contract the following week. Undercard matches On the SmackDown 1000 special on October 16, 2018, Batista, who had last wrestled in WWE in 2014, made an appearance for an Evolution reunion. During the segment, Batista praised fellow Evolution member Triple H for having done everything in the wrestling business except defeat him; during Batista's first singles run in 2005, he defeated Triple H in all three of their only matches against each other. The two had a tense stare down before embracing, seemingly showing that there was no ill will between the two. However, on the February 25, 2019 episode of Raw, a celebration for fellow Evolution member Ric Flair's 70th birthday was planned, but Flair did not show. It was then shown that Batista had attacked Flair backstage, seeking Triple H's attention. Triple H called out Batista on the March 11 episode of Raw, where Batista stated that he wanted his final match to be on his own terms. He challenged Triple H to a match at WrestleMania 35, and Triple H accepted as a No Holds Barred match. Batista explained that his hatred for Triple H dated back to before their time in Evolution, claiming that Triple H had only used him and underestimated him. Batista then decided that he would not face Triple H unless Triple H put his career on the line, and Triple H agreed. On the March 11 episode of Raw, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle began his farewell tour, culminating with his farewell match at WrestleMania 35. The following week, Angle chose Baron Corbin as his final opponent. Angle explained that while there were many opponents he would have liked to have faced, Corbin was the only one he wanted to beat as Corbin had caused Angle many problems while Angle was Raw General Manager from 2017–2018 and eventually supplanted Angle, becoming Acting Raw General Manager until TLC in December 2018. At Crown Jewel, Shane McMahon won the WWE World Cup, replacing The Miz in the finals, who was deemed unable to compete due to a pre-match brawl. Following this, The Miz began a pursuit to form a tag team with Shane, claiming that they could become the "best tag team in the world". Shane finally agreed to the pairing, and the two won the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at the Royal Rumble. They lost the titles at Elimination Chamber, and failed to regain them at Fastlane; in both matches, Miz was pinned. Following their match at Fastlane, Shane attacked Miz and Miz's father, turning heel. On the following episode of SmackDown, Shane explained that he was tired of people using him. He said he wanted to beat up Miz again and scheduled a match between himself and Miz for WrestleMania 35. Miz said that he was warned not to trust Shane, and challenged him to make their match falls count anywhere, to which Shane agreed. For several weeks, AJ Styles and Randy Orton interrupted each other's backstage segments on SmackDown, insulting each other. At Elimination Chamber, Orton eliminated Styles in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. At Fastlane, after Orton had attacked Elias from behind with an ''RKO'', he himself was then attacked by Styles with a ''Phenomenal Forearm''. On the following episode of SmackDown, Orton took umbrage with Styles referring to SmackDown as "the house that AJ Styles built", since Orton began his career on SmackDown in 2002 and became very successful, while Styles, who debuted in WWE in 2016, spent most of his career on the independent circuit (1998–2016), with Orton also alluding to Styles's time in Ring of Honor and TNA. Styles responded by saying that Orton had everything handed to him because of his family's wrestling lineage while Styles had to actually work for it. Styles eventually challenged Orton to a match at WrestleMania, which Orton accepted. On the October 22, 2018 episode of Raw, Roman Reigns went on hiatus due to leukemia. He returned on the February 25, 2019 episode and explained that his leukemia was in remission and that he would return to action. At Fastlane, Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins reunited for one last time as The Shield and defeated the team of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre, and The Shield performed their signature Triple Powerbomb on McIntyre through a broadcast table. The following night on Raw, Reigns, who had not competed on Raw in five months, was scheduled to face Corbin, but McIntyre attacked Reigns before the match. Ambrose subsequently faced McIntyre in a falls count anywhere match in a losing effort. The following week, McIntyre challenged Reigns to a match at WrestleMania 35 and then defeated Rollins later that night. On the March 25 episode, after McIntyre brought up Reigns' leukemia and family, Reigns accepted the challenge. The following week, Reigns said that although McIntyre's previous attack had kept him out of action for a couple of weeks, he was cleared to compete at WrestleMania. McIntyre then attacked Reigns from behind. At Fastlane, Samoa Joe retained the United States Championship in a fatal four-way match by making Rey Mysterio pass out to the Coquina Clutch. On the following episode of SmackDown, Mysterio pinned Joe in a tag team match. The following week, Joe was scheduled to defend the championship against Mysterio at WrestleMania 35. After becoming the inaugural holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship at Elimination Chamber, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) stated that they would defend the titles across Raw, SmackDown, and NXT. After retaining the championship against Nia Jax and Tamina at Fastlane, for which they received a post-match beat down, The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) called out the champions on the March 12 episode of SmackDown. The following week on Raw, WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix came out of retirement to reform her tag team with Natalya and challenge for the championship at WrestleMania 35. The next night on SmackDown, The IIconics defeated The Boss 'n' Hug Connection in a non-title match. The following Raw, after asserting that they would defend the titles against anyone, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection were scheduled to defend the titles against Jax and Tamina, Phoenix and Natalya, and The IIconics in a fatal four-way tag team match at WrestleMania. At Elimination Chamber, Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a 2-on-1 handicap match to win Lashley's Intercontinental Championship. Lashley regained the title on the March 11 episode of Raw thanks to assistance from Rush. On the March 25 episode, Bálor was originally scheduled to face Lashley and Rush in a handicap match where if he won, he would receive a title match at WrestleMania 35, but as Rush was not medically cleared, Jinder Mahal instead teamed with Lashley. Despite the odds, Bálor defeated Lashley and Mahal to earn a championship match against Lashley at WrestleMania. The following week, Bálor warned Lashley that he would be facing "The Demon". On the April 2 episode of SmackDown, WrestleMania 35 host Alexa Bliss informed The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) that while forfeiting their gauntlet match against The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) the previous week was honorable, there would be repercussions. She then scheduled The Usos to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania in a fatal four-way tag team match against The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus), Aleister Black and Ricochet, and Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. Pre-show matches On the February 19 episode of 205 Live, General Manager Drake Maverick scheduled an eight-man single elimination tournament with the winner facing Buddy Murphy for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 35. The tournament occurred over the next few weeks. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, Oney Lorcan, and Cedric Alexander advanced to the semifinals by defeating Kalisto, The Brian Kendrick, Humberto Carrillo, and Akira Tozawa, respectively. which was won by Nese. On the March 4 episode of Raw, Braun Strowman got into a backstage confrontation with SNL s Colin Jost and Michael Che, with Jost questioning the legitimacy of professional wrestling, resulting in Strowman choke lifting him. The following week, the duo attempted to apologize to Strowman by gifting him a new car, only for Strowman to dismantle it. On the March 18 episode, the annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was confirmed when Strowman became the first to announce his participation. The following week, while as guests on "A Moment of Bliss", Strowman challenged Jost to enter the battle royal. Che agreed on his behalf, and Jost in turn also agreed that Che would enter. As the host of WrestleMania 35, Alexa Bliss then confirmed that both Jost and Che would be participants in the battle royal. On March 29, WWE confirmed that the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal would occur again at WrestleMania 35 and announced several participants. On the April 1 episode of Raw, The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) retained the Raw Tag Team Championship against Aleister Black and Ricochet. After the match, the champions were challenged to a title match at WrestleMania 35 by Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, who recently had failed to win any matches. The Revival accepted on Twitter. Event Pre-show Four matches were contested on the pre-show. In the first match, Buddy Murphy defended the WWE Crusierweight Championship against Tony Nese. In the end, Nese performed a Running Knee on Murphy who was seated in the corner to win the title. The Women's Battle Royal took place next. In the end, Sarah Logan seemingly last eliminated Asuka but Carmella had slipped under the top rope (avoiding elimination) so as Logan prematurely celebrated, Carmella crawled back into the ring and managed to eliminate Logan with a superkick. After that, The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) defended the RAW Tag Team Championship against Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder. In the end, Dawson performed a brainbuster on Hawkins outside the ring, As Dawson rolled Hawkins back in the ring, Hawkins feigned unconsciousness and then performed a roll-up on Dawson to win the title and ending Hawkins 269 losing streak. In the last pre-show match, the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was contested. In the end, Braun Strowman eliminated WrestleMania correspondent, Colin Jost, to win the match. Preliminary matches WrestleMania 35 host Alexa Bliss welcomed the crowd. As the host, she said that anything could happen with the snap of her fingers. She then snapped her fingers and Hulk Hogan came out to hype up the crowd. Paul Heyman then marched to the ring. Heyman said that Brock Lesnar should be the main event, but since that was not the case, his match would be happening first. Lesnar then made his entrance to defend the Universal Championship against Seth Rollins, who entered second. Lesnar attacked Rollins before the match began. After the match was started, Lesnar delivered several German Suplexes to Rollins. Rollins then shoved Lesnar into the referee. While the ref was down, Rollins hit a low blow followed by three Stomps to win his first Universal Championship. Next, AJ Styles faced Randy Orton. Orton hit an RKO for a two count. Styles hit a Phenomenal Forearm to Orton outside the ring and again in the ring for the win. In the third match, The Usos defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus), Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura, and Aleister Black and Ricochet in a fatal four-way tag team match. In the end, The Usos delivered a double Superfly Splash on Sheamus to retain the titles. Following this, The Miz faced Shane McMahon in a falls count anywhere match. Early on, Shane attacked Miz's dad, who was seated at ringside. Miz's dad got into the ring in an attempt to face Shane, but was beat down by Shane. Miz and Shane then fought out into the crowd. In the end, Miz superplexed Shane off of a camera stage to the floor. Shane landed on top of Miz and the referee counted, giving the win to Shane. In the fifth match, The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against Nia Jax and Tamina, The IIconcis (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), and Beth Phoenix and Natalya in a fatal four-way tag team match. In the end, Phoenix performed a Glam Slam off the top rope on Bayley and Kay, who tagged herself in, threw Phoenix out of the ring, and covered Bayley for the win, giving The IIconcis the titles. Next, Daniel Bryan defended the WWE Championship against Kofi Kingston. Bryan hit the Running Knee and then locked in the Lebelle Lock, but Kingston escaped. Kingston hit Trouble in Paradise to win his first WWE Championship, also becoming WWE's 30th Triple Crown Champion and 20th Grand Slam Champion. After than, Samoa Joe defended the United States Championship against Rey Mysterio. Mysterio hit a 619 early, but Joe was able to lock in the Coquina Clutch on Mysterio, who passed out, thus Joe retained the title. In the eighth match, Drew McIntyre faced Roman Reigns. McIntyre dominated most of the match, but Reigns took a Glasgow Kiss and bounced off the ropes and hit a Superman Punch. Reigns hit McIntyre with the Spear for the win. Elias then came out for his WrestleMania concert. He was interrupted by John Cena, who came out in his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick. Cena dissed Elias and then hit Elias with the F-U. Next, Triple H put his career on the line in a No Holds Barred match against Batista. Triple H pulled Batista's nose ring out of his nose with needle nose pliers. Late in the match, Triple H speared Batista through an announce table. Triple H hit a Pedigree and Batista hit a Batista Bomb, but both were near falls. Batista grabbed a sledgehammer and Ric Flair came through the crowd and gave Triple H a sledgehammer. Triple H was able to hit Batista with his sledgehammer and followed it up with a second Pedigree to win the match and keep his career intact. Following that, Baron Corbin took on Kurt Angle in Angle's farewell match. Corbin won the match after hitting the End of Days on Angle. Angle's music played as he walked up the WrestleMania stage for the final time. In the penultimate match, Bobby Lashley defended the Intercontinental Championship against "The Demon" Finn Bálor. Lashley speared Bálor through the ropes and then again in the ring for a near fall. Bálor hit a Coupe de Grace on Lashley to win the Intercontinental Championship for a second time. Main event The main event was the first-ever women's main event match in WrestleMania history in which Becky Lynch faced Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair in a winner takes all triple threat match for both titles. In the end, Flair locked in the Figure-Eight Leg Lock on Rousey, which Lynch broke up and then Rousey and Lynch put Flair through a table. Rousey hit the Piper's Pit on Lynch, but Lynch countered it into a roll-up pinfall to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships — her first Raw Women's Championship and record-tying third SmackDown Women's Championship. Match Preview Results ; ; *Pre-Show:Tony Nese defeated Buddy Murphy © to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (10:40) *Pre-Show: Carmella won the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal (10:30) *Pre-Show: Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder defeated The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) © to win the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship (13:20) *Pre-Show: Braun Strowman won the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (10:20) *Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar © (w/ Paul Heyman) to win the WWE Universal Championship (2:30) *AJ Styles defeated Randy Orton (16:20) *The Usos (Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso) © defeated Ricochet & Aleister Black, The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus) & Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev (w/ Lana) in a Fatal four-way tag team match to retain the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship (10:04) *Shane McMahon defeated The Miz in a Falls Count Anywhere match (15:26) *The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) defeated The Boss 'n' Hug Connection (Bayley and Sasha Banks) ©, The Divas of Doom (Beth Phoenix and Natalya) & Nia Jax and Tamina in a Fatal four-way tag team match to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (10:45) *Kofi Kingston (w/ Big E & Xavier Woods) defeated Daniel Bryan © (w/ Rowan) to win the WWE Championship (23:43) *Samoa Joe © defeated Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE United States Championship (1:00) *Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre (10:10) *Triple H defeated Batista in a No Holds Barred match (24:45) *Baron Corbin defeated Kurt Angle in Kurt Angle's Retirement Match (5:58) *Finn Bálor defeated Bobby Lashley © to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship (4:02) *Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey (c; Raw) and Charlotte Flair (c; SmackDown) in a Winner takes all triple threat match to win both the WWE Raw Women's Championship and the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship (21:27) WWE Cruiserweight Championship #1 Contender's Tournament | RD2= Semifinals | RD3= Final | RD1-team1 = Tony Nese | RD1-score1 = Pin | RD1-team2 = Kalisto | RD1-score2 = | RD1-team3 = The Brian Kendrick | RD1-score3 = | RD1-team4 = Drew Gulak | RD1-score4 = Sub | RD1-team5 = Humberto Carrillo | RD1-score5 = | RD1-team6 = Oney Lorcan | RD1-score6 = Pin | RD1-team7 = Cedric Alexander | RD1-score7 = Pin | RD1-team8 = Akira Tozawa | RD1-score8 = | RD2-team1 = Tony Nese | RD2-score1 = Pin | RD2-team2 = Drew Gulak | RD2-score2 = | RD2-team3 = Oney Lorcan | RD2-score3 = | RD2-team4 = Cedric Alexander | RD2-score4 = Pin | RD3-team1 = Tony Nese | RD3-score1 = Pin | RD3-team2 = Cedric Alexander | RD3-score2 = }} Other on-screen talent See also *WrestleMania *List of WWE pay-per-view events *WWE Event History *Event gallery DVD release * WrestleMania XXXV on DVD External links * WrestleMania XXXIV Official Website * WrestleMania XXXV Pre Show on WWE Network * WrestleMania XXXV on WWE Network * WrestleMania XXXV Pre Show at CAGEMATCH.net * WrestleMania XXXV at CAGEMATCH.net * Hall of Fame Red Carpet * Hall of Fame Category:WrestleMania Category:2019 pay-per-view events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events